Bingham: Coddling pitchers a complete sham

I've touched on this subject before, but I feel I must again, since the infection seems to be spreading out of control.

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By Walter Bingham

capecodtimes.com

By Walter Bingham

Posted Jun. 6, 2014 at 2:00 AM

By Walter Bingham
Posted Jun. 6, 2014 at 2:00 AM

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I've touched on this subject before, but I feel I must again, since the infection seems to be spreading out of control.

I speak of the way managers in the major leagues pamper their pitchers, treating them like flowers who will wilt at the first hint of autumn.

Every day this paper prints a selection of box scores that, along with my morning coffee and English muffin, I digest carefully. In just the last few days I have collected a dozen samples of my findings, but fearing I might paralyze you with minutia, I will mention only two. But they are typical of so many.

Texas, I read recently, beat Minnesota, 1-0. Ah, I thought naively, two pitchers battled it out over nine innings, like Sandy Koufax and Juan Marichal used to do in the 1960s. But when I glanced at the box score, I saw that nine pitchers were used, five of them needed for the shutout.

A few days later, the Yankees beat the White Sox, 4-3. The Chicago starter was stellar, shutting out New York for eight innings. He led 3-0, so his manager decided to remove him and bring in his best relief pitcher, his "closer" in the game's terminology.

Whereupon the Yankees scored three runs to tie the game, then won it in the 10th. Now it's possible that the starter told his manager he was tired, but I doubt it. Why not let the starter go on and pitch a complete game?

A complete game — CG in baseball record books — has become as rare as a white whale. Years ago, pitchers of note — Christy Mathewson, Bob Feller, Warren Spahn — regularly compiled 30-40 of such games a year.

But in the past decade the leading number of complete games by a league's leader has dwindled to single digits. Last year in both the American and National League it was only four. What's going on?

I don't know what statistician first dreamed it up, but he came to the conclusion that after a pitcher throws 100 pitches, his arm might fall off. And so the pitch count joined the welter of other stats connected to the game.

If you watch a game on television, you are likely to see in the upper part of the screen, the score of the game, the inning, number of outs and the ball and strike count. Now additional information has been added — the total number of pitches thrown by the man on the mound.

Announcers tend to start sounding the alarm early.

"It took him 31 pitches to retire the side in the first inning," they will tell you. Later, "he's nearing 100 pitches, so the bullpen is starting to heat up."

A few years ago, a pitcher had a no-hitter going into the eighth inning. Then someone hit a single and the manager yanked his man instantly.

"I wasn't too upset when he finally gave up that hit," the manager said later. "His pitch count was 113, but under the circumstances, I couldn't take him out."

With so few pitchers throwing so few complete games, it is necessary for a team to have a squadron of relief pitchers on the roster, almost double the number 50 years ago. They have unofficial titles. Most of them are called the middle relievers and they sit in the bullpen, playing word games or pitch-penny until the phone rings saying it's time to warm up.

Then there is the set-up man, the eighth inning pitcher, and the closer. They often remain in the dugout, even in the locker room, until the game reaches the halfway point. Then they join the others in the bullpen where, depending on the score, they relax, awaiting their call to duty.

Incidentally, if you think I made up the goings-on in the bullpen during the early part of the game, you're wrong. Granted, I'm talking about what tenants of the pen did many years ago.

I got my material from Jim Brosnan, a Cincinnati reliever who wrote a marvelous book in 1960, "The Long Season," a chapter of which was devoted to the pranks and hijinks that went on in the bullpen during the game.

Of course, that was back at a time when the starting pitcher was likely to go the whole nine innings.

Walter Bingham, a former editor and writer for Sports Illustrated, lives in Truro. He can be contacted by email at sports@capecodonline.com.